Damian Reece: 'You have to take the GDP growth with a pinch of salt'

The Telegraph's Head of Business, Damian Reece cautions that while the UK GDP
figures are promising, "we are not out of the woods yet".

The Office for National Statistics, revealed this morning that the economy returned to growth at its fastest pace in five years, increasing 1pc in the third quarter.

While third quarter GDP results were much better than generally expected, Mr Reece warned that it was important to take into account one off factors such as Olympic ticket sales and the bounce back from the second quarter Jubilee holiday which had boosted the figures.

"Fundamentally it looked like the economy grew about 0.3pc in the third quarter on an underlying basis, which is growth, but it is still pretty anaemic," he said.

"It is still a long slow route to a back to sustainable recovery."

He also warned that the fourth quarter was facing some "severe headwinds" from the economic problems in the eurozone and the slowdown in China.